1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to lighting systems such as those used to generate light through use of variety of structures and systems, such as, by non-limiting example, arc discharges, electronic transitions, and incandescent illumination.
2. Background Art
Lighting systems contain components and structures that enable the collection, transmission, production and display of light from a variety of energy sources, such as electricity, sunlight, chemical reactions, and others. In lighting systems that employ electricity as an energy source, a wide variety of structures have been devised that use the electrical potential and/or current available to generate light through heating of a filament (incandescent and halogen light bulbs), arc discharge (neon tubes and fluorescent tubes), or through electronic transitions (light emitting diodes (LEDs) and fluorescent tubes). Various colors of light can be emitted through the use of chemical additives to the environment around a filament within a bulb (halogen light bulbs), coatings on the outside surface of the light bulb, additives to gases contained within an arc discharge tube (neon tubes), changes in coatings applied to the interior of an arc discharge tube (neon tubes and fluorescent tubes), or differences in the composition of semiconductor materials contained in a diode (LEDs). Various structures and methods have been devised to ignite and maintain various bulbs and tubes at a desired light level and to control and convey the light to areas where it is useful.